25 Forage Fish Energy Density
Description: Forage Engery Density indicators
Found in: State of the Ecosystem - Gulf of Maine & Georges Bank (2020+), State of the Ecosystem - Mid-Atlantic (2020+)
Indicator category: Database pull with analysis
Contributor(s): Mark Wuenschel, Ken Oliveira and Kelcie Bean
Data steward: Mark Wuenschel mark.wuenschel@noaa.gov
Point of contact: Mark Wuenschel mark.wuenschel@noaa.gov
Public availability statement: Source data are publicly available.
25.1 Methods
The forage fish energy denisty indicator comes from a collaborative project between UMASS Dartmouth Biology Department (Dr. Ken Oliveira, M.S student Kelcie Bean) and NEFSC Population Biology Branch (Mark Wuenschel). The study focuses on evaluating energy content of the species in Table 25.1.
| Common Name | Scientific Name |
|---|---|
| Atlantic Herring | Clupea harengus |
| alewife | Alosa pseudoharengus |
| silver hake | Merluccius bilinearis |
| butterfish | Peprilus triacanthus |
| northern sandlance | Ammodytes dubius |
| Atlantic mackerel | Scomber Scombrus |
| longfin squid | Loligo pealeii |
| northern shortfin squid | Illex illecebrosus |
25.1.3 Data analysis
Samples were analyzed for proximate composition and energy density from NEFSC spring and fall bottom trawl surveys. Predictive relationships between the percent dry weight of samples and energy density were developed, and samples collected from current surveys are currently being analyzed for percentage dry weight to enable estimation of energy content (Bean (2020)). The energy density of forage species differed from prior studies in the 1980s and 1990s (Steimle and Terranova (1985), Lawson, Magalhães, and Miller (1998), Table 25.1).
Sampling and laboratory analysis is ongoing, with the goal of continuing routine monitoring of energy density of these species.
25.1.4 Data processing
Code for building the table used in the SOE can be found here.
catalog link https://noaa-edab.github.io/catalog/energy_density.html